A Fairy Tale Existence (Angry Hourglass)

They were gathered in Tale’s town hall to debate the
question which had preyed on their minds as things reached crisis point. That is, those who were still left to save
their livelihood.

“It’s not as though no one knows the score!” Beauty added.

“All right for you,” Goldie said. “You’re not signed up for indentured
servitude. All you do is sleep. Raw deal, that!”

“It’s not like I picked, is it?” Beauty responded. “Besides, aren’t we missing the real point? The Prince is already trekking in search of
Psyche, which flies in the face of pretty much everything, including
genre. Cinders doesn’t care – says she’s
sick of re-enacting their first date, anyway; that it got stale on repeat. Plus, there are only so many times you can
fake excitement about an old shoe – even a Choo. Her words – not mine.”

“Fair play,” Kai said, eyebrow raised. “Though maybe not in the current climate,” he
added, in response to glares from several directions.

“You know there are gaps in the stories already?” Beauty
said. “They’re going to notice, even if
they do know them by heart and don’t have to get the books out each time. Stands to reason. We’re going to be found out.”

“Don’t make this a group thing! I didn’t agree to a character strike!” Wolf
interjected, teeth flashing. “Some of us
know our place!”

“Which is fine when our place is eat not be eaten,” Red
responded. “Grandma’s obviously not here pre regeneration to have her say.”

“We’re heading for revolution,” Lina said, glumly. “Had to
happen sometime, given current role distribution.”

“If Tale Town and fairy tales full stop are going to carry on
existing we have to sort this,” Beauty said.
“Think, people!” The characters
tried to, before they faded from black on the page, to grey, then white on
white, confronted by their overwhelming rigidity. Perhaps they should have been more like the
Prince, after all, if they were to save themselves.

Comment

Another "Hourglass" entry based on the photo prompt. Again, I tried to do something slightly different with this one, given a couple of more serious entries.